It doesn't matter what term you want to use, but apparently as of this morning, the PS3 has been hacked allowing you to play backups from the HD on any PS3 model. Oh, and it only requires a USB stick to work as well so you don't have to break it open. Here's a blurb:

Quote

A USB modchip for the PS3 has emerged from the mists this morning, purporting to allow the dumping of games onto nearby storage -- the console's internal HDD and external drives are both a-ok -- as well as the subsequent playing of said games without the need for the original disc. Could it be the backup/piracy nirvana Sony loyalists have been awaiting for so long? Well, there's a video showing the little USB device apparently working, and the PSX-Scene team say they have personally verified that it does what it claims to do, but skepticism remains advisable here. The PS3 has been a fortress of hacker unfriendliness, so we'd rather kick back, relax, and wait for some braver souls than us to do the testing. For now, the video awaits after the break.

That said, it sure took long enough for the PS3 to become hacked, so that's at least something positive on their side.

Logged

"All opinions posted are my own, and not those of my employers, who are appalled."

Don't believe everything you read. The pictures/videos that have been distributed show this "hack" being done on a debug system. In case you don't know, a debug system can already do the things this USB dongle supposedly does.

If this turns ou to be true, I wonder how it affects the Linux hack-back that was being worked on. I am still running an older FW on it as I haven't been tempted to buy anything on PSN lately. Kind of reluctant to update even though i haven't really wanted to install Linux on it.

Don't believe everything you read. The pictures/videos that have been distributed show this "hack" being done on a debug system. In case you don't know, a debug system can already do the things this USB dongle supposedly does.

So then why would it appear on a bunch of news sites like it did? You'd think that somebody would've checked up on it and gone "Hey, this isn't right" and posted it as such.

Crazy if it's true though. Silly if it isn't.

Logged

"All opinions posted are my own, and not those of my employers, who are appalled."

Don't believe everything you read. The pictures/videos that have been distributed show this "hack" being done on a debug system. In case you don't know, a debug system can already do the things this USB dongle supposedly does.

So then why would it appear on a bunch of news sites like it did? You'd think that somebody would've checked up on it and gone "Hey, this isn't right" and posted it as such.

Crazy if it's true though. Silly if it isn't.

Websites reported on it, and the better ones updated their reports when they studied it in more detail. Joystiq was one of the sites that updated their article to reflect the news about the debug unit.

Kotaku has no access to the USB stick and can't verify whether the stick works. But we have been talking to a representative of OzModChips.com who tells us that the stick "is not a hoax."

The rep, who would not provide his name and asked to be called "Mr. OzModChips", pointed Kotaku to a new video that, unlike the Ratchet clip, shows a TV and PS3 in full view for the entirety of a demonstration of the hack. The video was made to quiet skeptics who think that today's original clips were not proof of a working hack but simply hype and video editing trickery.

...

Some skeptics have said that the videos show the hack running on a debug PS3, but Mr. OzModChips tells Kotaku he is using a retail system.

Mr. OzModChips told Kotaku that the chip stock originates from China or Hong Kong but declined to say who designed the chip or where they are based. His site reports that "apparently 150 games have been tested on" the chip, which he tells us is information gleaned from direct contact with the chip maker. As for how this hack works, given that Sony's machine has been essentially uncrackable for four years, he told us in an e-mail: "I think it tricks the ps3 into thinking its a dev unit, but I don't know to much technical info about it."

The OzModChips website indicates that this chip will be available by the end of the month and works with PlayStation 3s that run firmware 3.41, the current firmware for the console. It is possible that a future Sony firmware update could seal any cracks a modchip exploits in the machine.

So that's how it works apparently.

Logged

"All opinions posted are my own, and not those of my employers, who are appalled."

Sony's not really cruising. I mean, the PSP isn't selling and the PS3 is still behind the Wii even after the Wii has dropped. Now, to make matters worse, they have to find whatever security hole these guys used and patch it while KNOWING that now the piracy cat is out of the bag.

And as Nintendo can tell you with the DS, once that cat is out, only a hardware revision will put it back.

Sony is indeed "cruising". The PS3 has become profitable and is getting more interesting exclusive titles than then 360.

I hope the console hasn't been hacked, just like the last time someone made this claim and backed it up with video (it was a hoax). Nobody who's worth caring about will benefit from the PS3 becoming open to piracy.

1) 150 Freaking Dollars for a USB memory stick with software on it. Yeah. Right.2) This is about as easy for Sony to pick up as a hooker in GTA. This is going to lead to mass bannings if Sony has any brains.

Pros of said jailbreak:

1) The ability to load your (legal) games onto your hard drive. Note: I'm not saying anything about backing up. I'm specifically talking about loading a game onto the PS3 HDD and running it from there. If you're going to make the PS3 an 'almost-computer', why not go whole hog?

If you're ever going to use PSN, you'd do well to stay away from this hack. Use of the debug mode (which this usb stick triggers) is supposedly just as easy for Sony to detect as any regular game. Bannings are to be expected.

I'm amazed they have not posted a mandatory update already. I wish they would go ahead and give us the option to do "legit" full installs when they do.

How would you propose they do that? The reason we're forced to use the blu-rays is because they function as copy protection. Since the blu-ray is in your drive, nobody else can play your copy of the game, even if you've installed it on several PS3s. If you let people play without the disc in the drive, you could have circles of friends who all install the game from the same disc.

I'm amazed they have not posted a mandatory update already. I wish they would go ahead and give us the option to do "legit" full installs when they do.

How would you propose they do that? The reason we're forced to use the blu-rays is because they function as copy protection. Since the blu-ray is in your drive, nobody else can play your copy of the game, even if you've installed it on several PS3s. If you let people play without the disc in the drive, you could have circles of friends who all install the game from the same disc.

unles they did it like the 360 where you need the disc in the drive, but a full install off of a blu ray could end up taking up a lot of space.

Logged

Because I can,also because I don't care what you want.XBL: OriginalCeeKayWii U: CeeKay

unles they did it like the 360 where you need the disc in the drive, but a full install off of a blu ray could end up taking up a lot of space.

Yeah, the one thing that people don't realize is that BR discs are HUGE when it comes to actual size. Remember that the 360's discs only hold up to 9GB (far less than that in actuality) and BR discs are upwards of 50GB. Even if you'd have one of these, it would not be a simple task to download them.

And the reason why there isn't a update for the PS3 already is that Sony needs to know how this device works exactly first. No doubt they've purchased one of these already to disassemble.

Logged

"All opinions posted are my own, and not those of my employers, who are appalled."

I'm amazed they have not posted a mandatory update already. I wish they would go ahead and give us the option to do "legit" full installs when they do.

How would you propose they do that? The reason we're forced to use the blu-rays is because they function as copy protection. Since the blu-ray is in your drive, nobody else can play your copy of the game, even if you've installed it on several PS3s. If you let people play without the disc in the drive, you could have circles of friends who all install the game from the same disc.

unles they did it like the 360 where you need the disc in the drive, but a full install off of a blu ray could end up taking up a lot of space.

That's what I meant like xbox/pc. Not suggesting an open door for piracy. I have a 500 gig hd in my ps3 and would love to have the games I am currently playing fully on it. Just a way around the 1st gen read speeds of the bd-rom

Unless they strip the auto-update out of discs, Sony can stealth update systems too. Many discs have new firmware ready to go if you don't already have it loaded. I run into this on the debug side of things ALL the time.

Yeah, it's kind of a goofy hack - you just put what you need to hack it into the PS3 controller itself.

On the flip side, the hacking code (assuming you haven't updated lately) now runs on Nokia phones, Palm Pre phones, older iPods, and many other devices. I'm tempted to do it just to see what it's like, because I haven't updated my PS3 in forever because I don't buy many games period nowadays, and I never play online.

« Last Edit: September 26, 2010, 10:49:29 PM by Destructor »

Logged

"All opinions posted are my own, and not those of my employers, who are appalled."

In a brief note on his site, GeoHot congratulated the fail0verflow team and noted that "I do not condone piracy," and then suggested that the three current console manufacturers contact him if they want secure systems. "It'd be fun to be on the other side."

Logged

Because I can,also because I don't care what you want.XBL: OriginalCeeKayWii U: CeeKay

Does that mean it is over? There is nothing Sony can do to stop this since now the hacker got the "master key"?

I guess disabling the Other OS turned out to be a big mistake for Sony. It encouraged good hackers to find security hole in PS3.

AFAIK, the PS3 is hacked, and hacked for good. There is nothing that can be done at this point to stop it, period, short of releasing an entirely new PS3 model (like they did with the PSP constantly). The horse has left the barn through the open door, and the barn has been burned down.

And yes, this only proves one thing - you do NOT piss off the hacking community. In the end, they will win. The Other OS feature kept them happy, and as thus they weren't spending their time 'attacking' the PS3. But once they removed it...they got revenge.

Just shows how quickly they could've hacked the PS3 had they really wanted to all this time, eh?

Logged

"All opinions posted are my own, and not those of my employers, who are appalled."

woooOOoo hacking community. I have great respect for computer professionals, I used to be one, but we're still just a group of nerds in our basements really when it comes to these kind of shenanigans, and the silly and stupid kinds of entitlement these people feel makes me laugh when I think back as my time amongst them.

To be honest, it's a bit silly to think that people weren't working to crack the PS3 even while it had linux. If you think about it, they could use any piece of hardware these days as a box to do all sorts of stuff. Home theater PCs, even building their own small form factor device. No, hacking consoles is more a hobby, linux support or no and people were doing it anyway. The main reason why linux was removed was because they were hacking the PS3 with the linux support. So honestly, what would you do?

With that said, it's something to think on that the PS3's protection scheme lasted for this long before a full (and easy) software based crack was released. Five years, which is actually a normal console cycle. The 360 was cracked a while ago, but thanks to XBL it's piracy impact was lessened too, but then again you've got Live watching over your shoulder.

All that time spent just to crack one machine could have been put towards building better machines than the crappy specialized architecture that is the PS3. Although admittedly, that specialized hardware does tend to have interesting things it can do since the PS3 architecture has a lot more floating point processors.

This doesn't change the fact that I will buy Uncharted 3 when it comes out. But it may force Sony to try and release the PS4 earlier despite the cost of launching a new platform.

To be honest, it's a bit silly to think that people weren't working to crack the PS3 even while it had linux. If you think about it, they could use any piece of hardware these days as a box to do all sorts of stuff. Home theater PCs, even building their own small form factor device. No, hacking consoles is more a hobby, linux support or no and people were doing it anyway. The main reason why linux was removed was because they were hacking the PS3 with the linux support. So honestly, what would you do?

With that said, it's something to think on that the PS3's protection scheme lasted for this long before a full (and easy) software based crack was released. Five years, which is actually a normal console cycle. The 360 was cracked a while ago, but thanks to XBL it's piracy impact was lessened too, but then again you've got Live watching over your shoulder.

According to the hacking team that did the latest hack, they've openly said that they started looking at ways to go into the PS3 once the Other OS was disabled (so 9 months or so, if not less). So, yes, nobody really was looking at how to get into the PS3. It was a good thing that Sony left that in, as otherwise the protection would've been broken in less than a year, just like the 360/Wii/PSP.

Logged

"All opinions posted are my own, and not those of my employers, who are appalled."

To be honest, it's a bit silly to think that people weren't working to crack the PS3 even while it had linux. If you think about it, they could use any piece of hardware these days as a box to do all sorts of stuff. Home theater PCs, even building their own small form factor device. No, hacking consoles is more a hobby, linux support or no and people were doing it anyway. The main reason why linux was removed was because they were hacking the PS3 with the linux support. So honestly, what would you do?

With that said, it's something to think on that the PS3's protection scheme lasted for this long before a full (and easy) software based crack was released. Five years, which is actually a normal console cycle. The 360 was cracked a while ago, but thanks to XBL it's piracy impact was lessened too, but then again you've got Live watching over your shoulder.

According to the hacking team that did the latest hack, they've openly said that they started looking at ways to go into the PS3 once the Other OS was disabled (so 9 months or so, if not less). So, yes, nobody really was looking at how to get into the PS3. It was a good thing that Sony left that in, as otherwise the protection would've been broken in less than a year, just like the 360/Wii/PSP.

I don't put too much faith in what they say they did. This is a group of people who often do the things they do simply to prove a point, and that point becomes stronger if they claim to only have started after the OS install option was removed.

Yeah, what you have to realize is that they could make themselves a better set top box to run linux on for less than the cost of the PS3, one that they have full control over, not to mention access to any and all hardware in the box they build themselves.

They can try to rationalize it that way, but let's be realists here, they were going to hack it anyway. At most, I'd say Sony taking the other OS out sped up the hack by a year. Once again, I point to people hacking for piracy using the linux OS on the PS3 itself.

Another thing you have to realize is that much of the ground work for this breakthrough was done prior to this group, they probably just took a lot of foundational hacking done to the machine, and ran with it to eventually find this.

Also, one of the ways this hacked work is they went back through all the software authentication codes they could find, a tedious process similar to trying to brute force decode an encrypted message. The only reason why they succeeded was that Sony used a random number generator that wasn't quite random (but I actually think some disgruntled developer actually tipped them off since Sony has a way of upsetting third party developers sometimes).

Lastly, nothing entitles them to run anything on the system really. Although really, they and we, do buy the hardware, it is at a subsidized cost still.